Toe stop mounting for street roller skates

ABSTRACT

A toe stop mounting for the type of street roller skates that contain a channel-shaped soleplate, a flat toeplate attached to the top of the soleplate, a toe clamp assembly attached to the bottom of the toeplate, and a front roller truck assembly attached to the bottom of the toeplate. The toe stop mounting includes an elongated strap of rigid material which is attached to the bottom of the channel-shaped soleplate between the side edges thereof and which is shaped to depend downwardly from the soleplate in front of the front roller truck assembly and then to extend upwardly toward the front end of the toeplate. A resilient toe stop member is attached to the bottom surface of the elongated strap in the upwardly extending region thereof. The strap is approximately equal in width to the inside dimension of the channel-shaped soleplate so that it receives lateral support from the side edges of the soleplate and is shaped so as to make contact with the front portion of the front roller truck assembly and toe clamp assembly for support purposes.

United States Patent [72] Inventor Gordon K. Ware St. Charles, II]. [2]]Appl. No. 830,351 [22] Filed June 4, 1969 [45] Patented May 25, 1971[73] Assignee The Chicago Roller Skate Company Chicago, Ill.

[54] TOE STOP MOUNTING FOR STREET ROLLER SKATES 5 Claims, 5 DrawingFigs.

[52] US. Cl... 280/l1.2 [51] Int. Cl A63c 17/14 [50] Field of Search280/1 1.2, 11.26, 11.19-1 1.28, 11.1, 7.13

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,937,031 5/1960 Hartley etal. 280/1 1.2 FOREIGN PATENTS 743,725 H1956 Great Britain 280/11.2894,846 4/ 1962 Great Britain 280/1 1.2

Primary Examiner-Benjamin Hersh Assistant Examiner-Milton L. SmithAttorney-Olson, Trexler, \Yolters & Bushnell ABSTRACT: A toe stopmounting for the type of street roller skates that contain achannelshaped soleplate, a flat toeplate attached to the top of thesoleplate, a toe clamp assembly attached to the bottom of the toeplate,and a front roller truck assembly attached to the bottom of thetoeplate. The toe stop mounting includes an elongated strap of rigidmaterial which is attached to the bottom of the channel-shaped soleplatebetween the side edges thereof and which is shaped to depend downwardlyfrom the soleplate in front of the front roller truck assembly and thento extend upwardly toward the front end of the toeplate. A resilient toestop member is attached to the bottom surface of the elongated strap inthe upwardly extending region thereof. The strap is approximately equalin width to the inside dimension of the channel-shaped soleplate so thatit receives lateral support from the side edges of the soleplate and isshaped so as to make contact with the front portion of the front rollertruck assembly and toe clamp assembly for support purposes.

TOE STOP MOUNTING FOR STREET ROLLER SKATES BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONThis invention relates to toe stop mounting for street-type rollerskates.

Many different types of toe stop mountings have been provided in theprior art for the rink-type of roller skate, i.e. the relativelyexpensive type of roller skate that is adapted to be mounted on a rollerskating boot and used in an indoor roller skating rink. But althoughthese prior-art toe stop mountings have proven successful in rink-typeroller skates, they have presented several serious drawbackswith respectto the less expensive street type of roller skate which is adapted to beclamped onto the bottom of an ordinary pair of shoes and used onsidewalks. In the first place, the basic supporting structure of astreet-type roller skate differs radically from the rink-type rollerskate. Whereas the rink-type roller skate has a fixed soleplate memberthat provides an unbroken support base extending from the toe end of theskate to the heel end thereof, the street-type roller skate must beadjustable in length so as to fit different sizes of shoes, and hencethe street roller skate is divided into two joined sections which can beslid toward and away from each other. Moreover, the front end of thestreet-type roller skate has to be fitted with a pair of toe clamps forclamping the sides of a shoe, and this toe clamp extends downwardly'inthe space that is normally occupied by the toe stop mounting member in arink-type roller skate. Accordingly, serious difficulties areencountered in finding a suitable place to attach the toe stop member toa street-type roller skate and equally serious difficulties areencountered in making the attachment sturdy enough to withstand theforces that are developed by the toe stop in use. In addition, since themarket price range for street-type roller skates is quite low comparedto the price range of rink-type roller skates, it is necessary for theabove-noted difficulties to be surmounted in a manner which does notsignificantly affect the price of the skates. Accordingly, it is theobject of this invention to provide a simple, sturdy, inexpensive toestop mounting that can be used in connection with the existing types ofstreet roller skates to provide a secure mounting for a toe stop memberwithout adding appreciably to the cost of the roller skate.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with this invention, theabove-noted objects are achieved by means of an elongated strap memberwhich is shaped to fit inside of the channel-shaped soleplate of astandard type of street roller skate and to be attached to the soleplateby the same stud that is used to attach the toeplate thereto. The strapis approximately as wide as the interior width of the channel member, sothat it will receive lateral support from the lateral side edgesthereof, and it is shaped to depend downwardly in front of the frontroller truck assembly and then to extend upwardly toward the end of thetoeplate. A resilient toe stop member is attached to the end of thestrap, and the strap is further shaped so as to contact the front rollertruck assembly and to permit the stud of the toe stop assembly tocontact the bottom of the toe clamp assembly to provide additionalsupport for the braking forces that are developed when the toe stop ispressed against the sidewalk. The strap member itself is a simplestamped steel strap and does not appreciably add to the cost of theskate. Moreover, it does not require any change in the design of theskate and can be added to a standard skate assembly without appreciablyincreasing the cost of the assembly operation. Other advantages of theinvention will be better understood from the following description ofone specific embodiment thereof as is illustrated in the attacheddrawings.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. I is an elevation view of a typicalstreet roller skate utilizing one illustrative toe stop mounting of thisinvention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the front of the skatestructure shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged front view of the skate structure shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of the toe stop mounting strapand toe stop member shown in FIGS. 1 through 3.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken on the plane 5-5 of FIG. 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION FIG. 1 shows one illustrative toe mountingstructure of this invention used in combination with a standard type ofstreet roller skate. The street roller skate structure includes atoeplate 10 which is attached to and supported by a front roller truckassembly 12, and a heelplate 14 which is attached to and supported by arear roller truck assembly 16. Toeplate l0 and heelplate 14 are joinedtogether by a channel-shaped soleplate 18 to which both are attached bymeans of threaded studs that extend through openings in the soleplate.

Heelplate 14 is attached to soleplate 18 by means of a threaded stud 20which is welded to heelplate l4 and projects downwardly through a slotin the top of soleplate l8 and is secured thereto by a nut 22. Byloosening nut 22, heelplate 14 can be slid back and forth along thesoleplate 18 to increase or decrease the length of the skate as a meansof adjustment for different-sized shoes. Toeplate 10 is attached tosoleplate 18 by means of a similar stud 24 which is welded to soleplateI0 and projects downwardly through matching bore in soleplate l8 and inthe toe stop mounting of this invention to receive a nut 26.

At the front end of the toeplate 10, a toe clamp assembly 28 is mountedfor clamping the skate structure to the toe portion of the wearers shoe.As best shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, toe clamp assembly 28 is supported by astud 30 which is attached to the front end of toeplate 10 and dependsdownwardly therefrom. As thus far described, the skate structurecomprises a standard type of street skate design such as is normallyused without toe stops. It is the principal purpose of this invention toprovide a toe stop mounting structure which can be used in connectionwith such a standard design to provide a simple, sturdy toe stop mountwhich is capable of supporting the stresses involved in toe stop brakingbut which will not add appreciably to the cost of manufacturing theskate. The toe stop mounting structure of this invention includes anelongated strap 32 which fits into the interior of the channelshapedsoleplate 18, as best shown in FIG. 6, and is attached thereto by thethreaded stud 24 and nut 26 which are provided in the standard streetroller skate structure to secure toeplate -10 to soleplate 18. As can beseen in FIG. 6, the strap 32 receives lateral support from contact withthe sidewalls of the channel-shaped soleplate l8.

Mounting strap 32 is bent downwardly as best shown in FIG. 2 so that itwill extend downwardly in front of the front roller truck assembly 12and then extend upwardly towards the end of toeplate 10 to support aresilient toe stop member 34 which is attached to strap 32 by means of abolt 36 and nut 38. The strap 32 is shaped so that it will contact thefront end of front roller truck 12 and also so that the end of bolt 38will contact the downwardly projecting toe clamp stud 30 in order toprovide additional support for" the braking forces that are developedwhen the toe stop member 34 is pressed against the sidewalk. Referringto FIGS. 2 and 4, three bores 40, 42, and 44 are formed in strap member32. Bore 40 is positioned to receive threaded stud 24, bore 44 ispositioned to receive bolt 36, and bore 42 is positioned to provideclearance for a connecting pin 46 which projects forwardly from thefront truck roller assembly 12.

When the resilient toe stop member 34 is pressed against the sidewalk todevelop a braking force, the upward and rearward thrust of the force istransmitted to the soleplate 10 at three points: (I) By contact betweenthe end of bolt 36 and the bottom of the toe clamp support stud 30; (2)by contact between the downwardly projecting portion of strap 32 and thefront roller truck assembly 12; and (3) by contact between strap 32 andstud 24. The lateral forces are transmitted through the sidewalls of thechannel-shaped soleplate 18 to the front roller truck assembly 12 andfrom there to soleplate 10. It will be clear, therefore, that the toestop mounting an rangement of this invention provides a balanceddistribution of the braking force and effectively transmits such forceto the toeplate without unduly concentrating the force in any one place.In addition, it will be seen that the toe stop mounting arrangement ofthis invention is extremely inexpensive to manufacture and can be easilyfitted onto a standard skate structure without any alteration in theskate structure or any precision adjustments. Accordingly, it will beclear that the toe stop mounting arrangement of this invention providesa simple, sturdy toestop mounting which can be used in connection withstandard street-type roller skates without significantly increasing thecost of the skate. And although this invention has been described inconnection with one specific embodiment thereof, it should be understoodthat many modifications can be made in the disclosed structure withoutdeparting from the basic principal of this invention, and that thisinvention includes all such modifications which fall within the scope ofthe following claims.

1 claim:

1. In a roller skate structure including a channel-shaped soleplatehaving a substantially flat top and a pair of substantially parallelside edges depending downwardly therefrom, a toeplate attached to theupper surface of said soleplate, a toe clamp assembly mounted to thebottom of said toeplate and projecting downwardly, and a front rollertruck assembly attached to said soleplate and extending downwardlytherefrom, the improvement comprising an elongate strap of rigidmaterial attached to the bottom of said soleplate between said sideedges thereof and depending downwardly from said soleplate in front ofsaid front roller truck assembly and then extending upwardly toward thefront end of said toeplate, and a resilient toe stop member attached tothe bottom surface of said elongate strap in the upwardly extendingregion thereof, said elongate strap being shaped to make contact withthe front of said front roller truck assembly and with the bottom ofsaid toe clamp assembly when said resilient toe stop member is pressedagainst a surface over which the skate is moving.

2. The improvement defined in claim I wherein said resilient toe stopmember is attached to said elongated strap by means of a threaded studwhich projects from said resilient toe stop member and extends through abore in said elongated strap, and wherein said strap is shaped toprovide contact between the end of said threaded stud and the bottom ofsaid toe clamp assembly when said resilient toe stop member is pressedagainst a surface over which it is moving.

3. The improvement defined in claim 2 wherein the width of saidelongated strap is approximately equal to the inside width of saidchannel-shaped soleplate whereby said strap will receive lateral supportfrom the sidewalls of said channelshaped soleplate.

4. The improvement defined in claim 3 wherein said toeplate, soleplate,and elongated strap are connected together by means of a threaded studattached to said toeplate and extending downwardly therefrom throughbores in said soleplate and elongated strap, and a nut attached to theend of said threaded stud.

5. In a roller skate structure including a channel-shaped soleplatehaving a substantially flat top and a pair of substantially parallelside edges depending downwardly therefrom, a toeplate attached to theupper surface of said soleplate, and a front roller truck assemblyattached to said soleplate and extending downwardly therefrom, theimprovement comprising an elongate strap of rigid material attached tothe bottom of said soleplate between said side edges thereof, saidelongate strap being shaped to depend downwardly from said soleplate infront of and adjacent to said front roller truck assembly and then toextend upwardly toward the front end of said toeplate, and a resilienttoe stop member attached to the bottom surface of said elongate strap inthe upwardly extending region thereof, said elongate strap beingresilient whereby when said stop member is pressed against a surface,said elongate strap may flex to insure engagement with said roller truckassembly thereby to gain support from said engagement.

1. In a roller skate structure including a channel-shaped soleplatehaving a substantially flat top and a pair of substantially parallelside edges depending downwardly therefrom, a toeplate attached to theupper surface of said soleplate, a toe clamp assembly mounted to thebottom of said toeplate and projecting downwardly, and a front rollertruck assembly attached to said soleplate and extending downwardlytherefrom, the improvement comprising an elongate strap of rigidmaterial attached to the bottom of said soleplate between said sideedges thereof and depending downwardly from said soleplate in front ofsaid front roller truck assembly and then extending upwardly toward thefront end of said toeplate, and a resilient toe stop member attached tothe bottom surface of said elongate strap in the upwardly extendingregion thereof, said elongate strap being shaped to make contact withthe front of said front roller truck assembly and wIth the bottom ofsaid toe clamp assembly when said resilient toe stop member is pressedagainst a surface over which the skate is moving.
 2. The improvementdefined in claim 1 wherein said resilient toe stop member is attached tosaid elongated strap by means of a threaded stud which projects fromsaid resilient toe stop member and extends through a bore in saidelongated strap, and wherein said strap is shaped to provide contactbetween the end of said threaded stud and the bottom of said toe clampassembly when said resilient toe stop member is pressed against asurface over which it is moving.
 3. The improvement defined in claim 2wherein the width of said elongated strap is approximately equal to theinside width of said channel-shaped soleplate whereby said strap willreceive lateral support from the sidewalls of said channel-shapedsoleplate.
 4. The improvement defined in claim 3 wherein said toeplate,soleplate, and elongated strap are connected together by means of athreaded stud attached to said toeplate and extending downwardlytherefrom through bores in said soleplate and elongated strap, and a nutattached to the end of said threaded stud.
 5. In a roller skatestructure including a channel-shaped soleplate having a substantiallyflat top and a pair of substantially parallel side edges dependingdownwardly therefrom, a toeplate attached to the upper surface of saidsoleplate, and a front roller truck assembly attached to said soleplateand extending downwardly therefrom, the improvement comprising anelongate strap of rigid material attached to the bottom of saidsoleplate between said side edges thereof, said elongate strap beingshaped to depend downwardly from said soleplate in front of and adjacentto said front roller truck assembly and then to extend upwardly towardthe front end of said toeplate, and a resilient toe stop member attachedto the bottom surface of said elongate strap in the upwardly extendingregion thereof, said elongate strap being resilient whereby when saidstop member is pressed against a surface, said elongate strap may flexto insure engagement with said roller truck assembly thereby to gainsupport from said engagement.